Milsap's reaction: "I am grateful when I hear something like that. To tell the truth, 30 years ago, I didn't understand what Sammy Davis Jr. meant when he said, 'It's really cool when the young cats dig ya.'

"Now I finally am old enough myself to understand. Sammy was right: it's very cool."

It seems that everyone - with the possible exception of an anonymous committee that votes on membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame - truly digs Milsap.

Provided by Allyson Reeves

Ronnie Milsap

There's no way he can be provoked into making negative comments about hall of fame voting. Instead, he says only, "There's just no way of predicting, but yes, I do feel it will happen someday for me.

"The main thing is to just not be too concerned about it. Someday it will happen."

Here are just a few reasons why it will happen, and as his fans say, the sooner the better:

 Forty No. 1 country hits. He trails only Conway Twitty, who released many duets with Loretta Lynn, and George Strait.

 More than 23 million records sold.

 Six Grammy Awards.

 Eight Country Music Association Awards.

 Three Academy of Country Music Awards.

Paul Beane, general manager of KRBL Radio (Rebel 105.7 FM), said, "Ronnie was unlucky. He came along during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a slow period that many in country music would like to forget.

"It was before Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba and Shania, singers whom some think were responsible for the rebirth of country music.

"When voters take a careful look into the history of country music, they will vote him into the hall of fame."

Music - "and the radio," Milsap stressed - were a refuge for him as a youth.

Provided by Allyson Reeves

His mother kept him in her home less than a year. Milsap never has forgotten, mentioning again this month, "She felt I was a curse from God."

Following his parents' divorce, his father and paternal grandparents raised him until he was 6, concluding that his only chance to become a productive member of society was as a student at the Governor Moorhead School for the Blind.

Disciplinary procedures there were cruel but, within a year, his skill with musical instruments could not be denied. Milsap would listen to the radio as much as he could, and school officials allowed him to undergo training in strictly classical music on the piano.

Yet, along with the piano he mastered guitar, other string instruments and woodwinds.

Support still was lacking.

Country concert

 Entertainer: Country recording artist Ronnie Milsap.

 When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

 Where: Fair Park Coliseum at the Panhandle-South Plains Fair.

 Tickets: Free.

 Outlets: KRBL Radio (Rebel 105.7 FM), the show's sponsor, will announce where free tickets will be distributed.

 Information: 749-1057. Milsap facts

 Full name: Ronnie Lee Milsap.

 Born: Jan. 16, 1943, blind from birth as a result of congenital glaucoma.

 Birthplace: Robbinsville, N.C.

 Present home: Nashville, Tenn.

 Family: Wife, Joyce; and son, Todd.

 Education: From age 6, Governor Moorehead State School for the Blind in Raleigh, N.C. Attended Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. on scholarship, studying for pre-law degree. Dropped out to pursue music career. Milsap's #1 hits (partial list

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David Brandon

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But Milsap was an ambitious student, earning a full scholarship to Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. That only made it easy for officials to encourage him to focus on academia, not music.

Speaking recently from his Nashville office, Milsap, 64, recalled telling counselors that his heart was filled with music.

He wanted to perform.

"Each one of them told me, 'You can't. You'll fall on your face and be a liability to the state.' ... I said 'OK;' I just needed another year at Emory to get into law school."

But then he met a man he considered the "high priest of music" - Ray Charles.

Milsap was 20. Charles was 33. Helped by a friend, Milsap slipped backstage into Charles' dressing room, where he bravely opened his soul.

Charles asked Milsap to sit at a piano and play a few songs. Milsap recalls Charles saying, "Ronnie, you can be a lawyer if you want to. But I hear a lot of music in your heart. If I were you, I'd listen to my heart."

That was the only endorsement Milsap cared to hear.

Milsap met his wife, Joyce, and they moved to Memphis, Tenn. He played piano for a number of other artists, including Elvis Presley, and also kept busy writing jingles and working at nightclubs.

It was Joyce who convinced him to accept Charley Pride's repeated invitation to move to Nashville and sign with his producer, Jack D. Johnson.

By 1973, shortly after his 30th birthday, people had begun embracing the Ronnie Milsap tunes that RCA was releasing.

In 1974, the Country Music Association nominated him as Best Male Vocalist.

When they called his name, Milsap said, "I was in such shock that my producer and manager took me and walked me up on stage together.

"That was such a moment of elation, to feel so accepted."

"It Was Almost Like a Song" would cross over to adult contemporary and pop charts.

Milsap, who admired risks taken by Bobby Darin, reminisced and said, "I got to do every style of music I ever wanted to try."

Panhandle-South Plains Fair manager Herb Higgs, who booked Milsap at the Illinois State Fair 20 years ago, said that he expects another 5,000 fans to show up this week.

This year Milsap will headline about 100 shows. That is half the number he played 20 to 30 years ago, and he explained. "Music is what gets me up in the morning, every morning.

"But going on the road, playing such a busy schedule: That's something I do because of the family of people around me. I have played with a lot of them for 20 years. But every night, we start from scratch. We might have gotten a standing ovation in Pittsburgh the night before. Doesn't matter.

"The fun comes in going back on stage and having to prove ourselves to a new audience all over again, night after night."